


Extraordinary Friendships

by EnchantedbookLover18



Series: Ellick One Shots (tumblr) [4]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Original Character(s), Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25126567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnchantedbookLover18/pseuds/EnchantedbookLover18
Summary: Tumblr prompts: “I thought you liked love songs.” & “So…ghosts, huh?”
Relationships: Ellie Bishop & Nick Torres, Ellie Bishop/Nick Torres
Series: Ellick One Shots (tumblr) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1820113
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	Extraordinary Friendships

**Author's Note:**

> A tumblr one shot requested by @rogueprincessdanie a while back!

“Daddy, can I get some tea and cookies, please?” A small voice sounded from behind him.

Nick turned around to look at his six-year-old daughter Annabelle who stood in the doorway to the kitchen, her favourite stuffed bear in her arms.

“Oh, sweetie, shouldn’t you be in bed?” Nick kneeled down in front of her, placing a hand on her temple to feel her temperature, “You’re still a little warm, Annie. Go back to bed and I’m gonna get you some tea, alright?” He kissed the little girl’s forehead and watched as she tiptoed back to her room down the hall.

A couple of minutes later, Nick walked towards her room when he heard a voice – Annie talking to –? He peeked around the corner into her room and watched as his daughter sat on her bed, stuffed animal in her arms and her pink princess tea set spread on the blanket before her.

“Do you want a cookie, Tommy?” She said to something across from her – only that there was nothing to be seen. Nick’s brows furrowed in mild confusion. “Papa is gonna get us some cookies and tea. Chocolate cookies – you like them?”

Annie nodded at the air in front of her as if something or someone was answering her question, “Oh, yes! Me too, Tommy. Chocolate is best. Mama will come back later – she’s working. Papa says mama’s work is important. And she said she’s gonna read me a story before bed. You like stories, Tommy?”

Nick watched baffled and a little terrified as his daughter filled two tea cups with tea (which was actually just air) and handed it to her ghostly friend Tommy. _What was he supposed to do?_ Should _he do anything?_ Nick wished Ellie was there to calm him down and figure this out.

Carefully, so he wouldn’t startle the little girl and spill the tea and cookies all over the floor, Nick entered her room, “Annie, baby girl. I got you some tea but I can see you’re already having a little party yourself.” Nick decided to play along so he wouldn’t upset his daughter before he’d figured out what was happening.

“Papa! You wanna play with us?” The blonde six-year-old who looked a lot like her mother – she had Ellie’s curly hair and eyes and her bright, in Annie’s case toothy, smile (Ellie would say their girl has his charming smile though, the jury was still out on that) – grinned at her father.

“Sure, sweetie. Who’s ‘we’? Do we have a special guest you didn’t tell me about?”

“It’s Tommy, papa. He’s sitting right next to you. Don’t you see him?” Annie looked at her father, a pout forming and confusion written across her face.

Nick immediately realised his little mistake and acted fast before the girl started to cry, “Oh, of course, I do! Hello, Tommy, nice to meet you,” he said, talking to the void next to him where Annie’s friend was supposedly sitting. _Was she seeing ghosts? WHERE THERE GHOSTS IN HIS HOUSE??_ _Oh boy, take a deep breath Nicholas, Nick thought to himself._

Father and daughter played for another hour with Annie’s ghostly friend until the little girl could no longer keep her eyes open, which were heavy from sleep and cold induced exhaustion.  
Nick took her in his arms and laid her down on the bed, pulling the blanket up and giving her a tiny kiss on the cheek.

❤❤❤

It was around 6pm when Ellie got home from the Navy Yard, after a draining day in the field. “Babies, I’m home,” Ellie called from the front door, “Nick, Annie – you home?”

“Hey, babe. I’m glad you’re home – I’ve missed you,” Nick murmured as he placed tiny kisses on her neck and up to her jawline, finishing with a tender kiss on his wife’s lips.

“How’s Annie? Did the fever go down? I felt awful to leave her alone today,” Ellie whispered in the crook of his neck with Nick’s arms tightly wrapped around her shoulders.

“She’s fine, babe. And you didn’t leave her alone – I was with her the whole day,” Nick tried calming her down.

“Yeah, you’re right, I’m sorry. It’s been a long day…” Ellie freed herself from his embrace, locking eyes with him, “Was everything okay? What did you two do today?”

Nick tore at his hair and walked into the living room, Ellie following at his feet. Out of a sudden, he came to an abrupt halt and turned around which almost caused Ellie to stumble into him. “What happened today, Nick? Was something wrong?” Ellie said with concern in her voice.

“Huh? Oh…no. I mean I don’t think so,” Nick let himself plop on the couch, a deep sigh leaving his lips. “Do you know anything about ghosts? Like, do we have ghosts in here I didn’t know about? This is totally messing with our juju. I don’t know what’s happening…Gaaah,” he almost screamed, stress and confusion washing over his face.

“Nick, honey, please,” Ellie begged her husband. “Calm down. I don’t know what’s going on either. So, take a deep breath and start from the beginning,” she said soothingly.

Ellie took a seat next to him, placing a hand above the hand that rested on his knee.

“After lunch, Annie came walking to the kitchen, asking for tea and cookies. Don’t worry I only gave her two cookies and a few slices of apple. Anyway, as I walked into her room, she was talking to someone or something? I don’t know. His name – or its name? Is Tommy. We played together for a while and I tried my best to act along, you know? But what was that, Ellie? Should we be worried?” Nick rambled on and on while he was practically out of breath. “My nana used to say ‘don’t mess with ghosts, don’t get on their bad side’. They always want something – they want the people they’re haunting to solve their problems, what’s keeping them here, their death or something.”

Ellie put a finger above Nick’s lips to shut him up. “Nick, babe, honey. Calm down please. That’s Annie’s imaginary friend, Tommy. It’s not a ghost – so please don’t freak out.”

“What? You knew about this whole Tommy thing?” Nick asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise.

“Well, yes. I’m surprised you didn’t. I mean she’s been talking about him before…” Ellie’s voice trailed off.

“Oh, _that_ Tommy! I thought he was a friend from school,” Nick replied as realisation finally kicked in.

“Tommy is her imaginary friend, not a ghost. Babe, it’s okay. It might be a little confusing but it’s not unusual for some kids to develop imaginary friends. It’ll blow away at some point,” the blonde woman caressed his cheeks and placed a small kiss above his eyebrow.

“Ohh…Okay. I guess I didn’t know that was really a thing. So, no ghosts, yeah? That’s a relief.” Nick’s voice was still a little shaken from the thought of a ghost in his house and the memories he had of his grandma’s stories.

“Really, Nick. I had an imaginary friend in kindergarten. My mum told me about it. Her name was Lizzy and after a few months she just disappeared. At first, my parents were totally scared and confused but everyone – even psychologists – kept telling them it was alright and over time, they got used to it.”

“Oh, okay. I’m glad it’s not ghosts. You’ll have to tell me about Lizzy sometime, Ellie,” Nick was deep in thought, suddenly resting his head on her shoulder.

After a while, Ellie broke the silence, “ **So…ghosts, huh?** Didn’t know you had such a strong…opinion about them.” Ellie grinned, unbeknownst to Nick, but he could still sense the teasing.

“Ugh,” Nick groaned loudly, burying his head in Ellie’s shoulder, which only made her chuckle even more.

❤❤❤

The little family got dinner after Annie woke up from her nap. Ellie kept her promise and brought the little girl back to bed again, reading her not only one but two bedtime stories. With their child soundly asleep, they turned on some soft piano and violin tunes and made themselves comfortable on the couch in front of the fire place, wrapped under a cosy blanket.

Before Ellie could fall asleep in his arms though, Nick stood up again from the couch in their living room and changed the music, now Camila Cabello’s ‘Easy’ playing in the background.

“Nick, what are you doing?” Ellie’s sleepy voice came from her spot on the couch, she was blinking back the sleep.

“ **I thought you liked love songs** ,” Nick replied as he held a hand out to pull her up and into his strong arms.

“I do,” Ellie whispered in his ear as they slowly started swaying back and forth through the peaceful winter night. “And we should seriously talk about this ghost issue again, Nick.”


End file.
